Wednesday, December 25, 2013

This week was pretty great! We went caroling in downtown Greenville
last night. Proselyting around Christmas isn't very effective, so the
zone has plans to go caroling every night this week. Sister Titus and I
won't be able to go every night, but we will go most of the nights.

We had many awesome miracles happen this week, but I
want to have something to tell you on Christmas. So you'll just have to
wait!

So...Sorry this is so short. I have an
attention span of about 5 minutes because I can't stop thinking about
Christmas. I'm quite excited. :)

I'll talk to ya in a couple days :D remember, 1130. Be there or be square

These are the pictures I was going to send last week. It is my district!
We are pretty much best friends. We all got ugly sweaters- most from
thrift shops, but a couple from the women's section of Walmart... AKA
Elder Potts and Garrett... :) Hope you enjoy

This week we did a lot of stuff... I will just give you the day to day rundown... If you don't mind.

Monday: We did all our pday stuff (emails, groceries, etc.) We played basketball/volleyball with the Elders in our district for five-ish hours. We were really sore after that... But we always have fun. I would like Audrey and Janessa to know that my basketball skills are improving rapidly. We will have a competition when I get back and I'll school you both. So, there... :) We also went to Sierra's and Sister Titus taught them how to knit while I worked on the countdown chain. We are making a yearlong countdown chain to when Sierra and Arlin get to go to the temple. It's pretty sick.

Tuesday: We took our district Christmas picture with our ugly sweaters. I forgot my camera, so you'll have to wait for that gem. We also made up a skit for Christmas zone conference, which is tomorrow. It's pretty sick. We took our car to the shop and got it fixed. YAY for heating! We visited some people then went to the to a member's home for dinner. Then we wrapped some Christmas presents.

Wednesday: We went on exchanges. I stayed in my area and Sister Titus went to Simsponville. We met a lot of people to go back and see. Get this. We knocked into this one guy who we taught half of the restoration to. He agreed with everything and loved it all. We gave him a Book of Mormon, too. As we were leaving he said, "I thought y'all were the Mormons. They are crazy and I don't believe anything they do. That's a weird bunch of people." We just walked away and said we'd come back. I'm excited to see how that goes... We gave him a book of MORMON... So, ya... That's interesting.

Thursday: We visited a lot of less-active members and had dinner with the a family. They are good people who are working on coming back to church.

Friday: We had the ward Christmas party. We made Oreo Truffles for it. It was a good party. A family we have been teaching came which made us so excited. Something funny: a lot of ward members have a hard time remembering my name, so they just say hello to Sister Titus. But Sister Titus can't remember who they are, so she asks me and I know. It's just funny that people don't remember me, but I remember them. And people remember sis Titus, but she doesn't remember them. Ironic...

Saturday: We went to a baptism for a new sister. It was a good one. The Elders in our ward taught her and Sister Titus spoke. I lead the music...again. It's an ongoing joke we have because one time I lead the music and nobody was paying attention and I didn't want to stand up there anymore, so I sat down. And y'all know how I lead music. Now I lead the music all the time... Jank.

Sunday: We went to church and did a bunch of other stuff. We visited some less-actives. We went to the stake choir Christmas thing.

That brings us to today! We are emailing. Then we will go grocery shopping, clean Atticus (our car) and go play sports with the district/ practice our skit. We'll do something later tonight.

I never realized how much planning goes into missionary work. Good plans=good days. Bad plans=bad days. I've been learning a lot about the difference between those two.

Monday, December 9, 2013

I'll just start with the trivial things first... Thanks for the McDonalds gift card, mom! It has been muoy helpful! I got a jacket to layer with my rain coat. That's actually part of a miracle. I got to wrap presents this week and get to wrap more on Tuesday! I love to wrap presents! The vents in our car are broken, so we have to drive with the windows down so that the window doesn't get foggy. It's a fun time during a cold rain storm! :) Luckily we are taking it in to get fixed tomorrow.

Speaking of rain, it has been super rainy. But lots of times it's not really raining. It's just really humid. Like you're walking outside and you can feel water droplets on your face, but it's not raining... It's really weird. Then all your clothes are slightly moist. So, that's cool... ;)

Now to the good stuff.

1. We weren't having very many member meals... Like ever. But Sister Titus paid fast offerings last week and people just called us to see if we could have dinner. Then we had the next two weeks of meals planned. That was cool.

2.We went grocery shopping last Monday and met a member there. We were going to go hiking around her house after shopping. So she was walking around the store with us. We got a lot of stuff. Like really a lot. I got a jacket and about two weeks worth of food. and Sister Titus got about the same. Then we get to the cash register and this sweet member insisted on buying our groceries. She would not budge. So, she got our groceries. Then took us out to dinner. She is one of the most sweetest, genuine, giving people I have ever met.

3. We were working on contacting all of the former investigators in our area one day. We went to this one address in our records and come to find out the couple had been away on business for about a year and had just got back the night before. They are looking for jobs that can keep them around here, so they can come to church. And he wants to get baptized. And he came to church on Sunday. He has a lot of experiences with the church that were good.Bahhh! So exciting.

4. We went to two baptisms on Saturday. One in our ward and one in the 1st ward. It's just amazing to see there reactions when they come out of the font. I never realized how important and amazing baptism is, but I am constantly reminded by the baptisms we get to go to. The new members have so much faith and have made some big changes. And I love to see them glow, because they know it is true.

Being a missionary is pretty much the bomb. I love it a lot. I have an invitation for y'all. Will you at the end of the day write down how you saw the hand of God in your life? Then will you tell me at the end of the week? I would really like that. :)

Well, I got to go. Have a great week. And look for the miracles. I know they are there. :)

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Well, this week was full of things. I just heard the news about Lit from Katherine and Mom. My heart sank when I heard. He was such a great teacher and such a great man. It's because of him that I love biology so much and want to go into biology. He will be missed most definitely. I'm wearing my AP Bio shirt today and I'm not taking it off for a while. Yeah, true story!

This week it snowed. Yep. Didn't think I'd see snow for 18 months. It didn't stick, but it snowed for a good hour. It rained a lot, too. Like really a lot. I think I'm going to buy a thicker coat or something to layer my rain coat with. We did go knocking in the pouring rain, though! It was actually really good. We met a lot of people. It feels good to go out and talk to people. I totally forgot it was cold and rainy, too. It was just a good day.

This is Sierra and us at her baptism

A lot of this week was dedicated to getting ready for our investigators baptism and wedding. Yep. She got married and baptized on the same day. It was the bomb. She (Sierra) is absolutely wonderful. She married a less- active member who is now active. We had no clue what was ever going on at the wedding/baptism. It was sort of crazy. But we did our best and it all worked out. We just went with it most of the time.

My favorite part of the whole thing though was when she got into the font. Ah... That was amazing. Just seeing her face and how happy she was was so awesome. In those few moments I felt the spirit so strong, and I was so happy for her. I knew in that moment that this is what it's all about. Being a missionary is easy when you think about it. We just try our best and do what we are supposed to do and the Holy Ghost touches the souls of wandering people. Then they act with unwavering faith. I love being a missionary.

Sierra was so beautiful and I could feel how excited and happy she was, and yet how content and calm she was also. It was so cool.

Us and Sister McMinn. She's pretty much the bomb

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! I know this is where I am supposed to be. Sometimes it's really hard to be so far away from family and friends, but I can feel your prayers. I've got a bunch of friends here that will last a life time. I love being a missionary so much.